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Published in the daily newspaper Information on 8 August 1997
" When an apple fell on his head, Newton was inspired to describe
the three laws of motion, that carry his name. (...)
In his attempt to be objective, Newton overlooked the question of
how it feels to be the apple.
When we put our bodymass in motion, we raise above the law of gravity
and go towards the swinging, circulating attraction of the centrifugal
force. Dancers ride upon, and play with these forces." (Steve
Paxton in "Fall after Newton", Videoda.1987
" It looks a bit sectarian" commented the 13-years of the
house, as he watched the video " Fall after Newton" and
the - with a mild understatement - untrendily dressed dancers. But
the next minute he laughed at the glimpses of the contact improvisation
in the US in the seventies - a laughter full of recognition from the
joyful moments of his childhood's dangling, spinning and dancy-tumbling
play.
Sect or not, dancers in 1997 still dance Contact Improvisation - all
over the world.
They still dance in t-shirts and loose fitting trousers. And yes,
contact improvisation still looks like a tumbling game, where adults
roll, fall and climb on another.
What is it actually, these dancers do? And can there be traced an
development in the danceform, which goes beyond the immediate impression
of survival from the 70's?
Lift without take off
With these questions in mind I traveled to Contact Improvisation's
25 anniversary, which was marked with two weeks of teaching, jams,
lectures, discussions and performances at Oberlin College in Ohio.
At the center of the aniversaries activities was the ecliptically
shaped dance studio, where Steve Paxton in 1972 presented Contact
Improvisation in its seed with the performance "Magnesium".
Here in the dance studio I was surprised with the incredibly soft
and athletic movement quality of especially the older dancers. I saw
whirling lifts without the shadow of of preparing take off. Spins
in all directions and on all levels, gliding falls, which ignored
gravity and instead moved out, around and upwards. And throws of bodies
which at first shocked and afterwards touched totally other strings,
when the downstroke of the physical mass was suspended in mid air...
and the bodies in a dwelling moment seemed to rest.
Pedestrians' steps.
Originally Steve Paxton worked alongside others in the postmodern
dance. He started to dance in the late 1950´s - with a background
as a gymnast- but found himself provoked and fascinated by the artistic
companions John Cage and Merce Cunnningham. He was first the pupil
of and became later a dancer with Cunningham.
In 1965, he went his own ways to develop his interest for ´pedestrian
movements´. Prosaic movements such as standing, walking, runnning
and sitting. From 1970 - 1976 the work took place in the collectively
led group Grand Union, where Seve Paxton danced with among others
Trisha Brown, David Gordon and Yvonne Rainer. At around the same time,
Paxton discovered the japanese martial art Aikido and its techniques
of falling.
Art or Sport.
Last year Paxton was in Copenhagen, where he performed in Eugenio
Barba's symposium during the conference of ISTA, International School
for Theatre Antropology. Among the symposium's cornucopia of masters,
each representing a highly developed classical tradition, Paxton appeared
as a humble con amore researcher/artist. " This is the tradition
of no tradition" he said in his presentation of contact improvisation
in the acknowledgment that an improvisational expression would not
win recognition as an artform in the company of traditional classical
danceforms.
" But that's allright with me" he pointed out in Oberlin,
and added that the definition of art is at all times historical.
The concept of `artsport ` has been surgested as a suitable for Contact
Improvisation. Because just as in sport, the performance is improvised
in from of the eyes of the audience. At the same time Contact Improvisation
has of course also renounced its possibillity to build up an repertory
of set dance pieces. Through dilligent use of the video as the third
eye on the improvisations, it has however been possible to capture
the dance for later analysis.
Contact Improvisation and the rest of the danceworld.
About the relationsship to the remaining danceworld Steve Paxton said:
" As long as we don´t try to tell them that Contact Improvisation
is an aestethic event, then they don´t have a problem with us."
That is to say, as long as Contact Improvisation is not called art.
Actually the technique has for several years held a natural place
in the education of the big European dance schools. In the field of
´new dance`, for example at the schools for " New Dance
Development" in Holland, where Danish choreographers and dancers
like Anders Christiansen, Anne Katrine Kallmoes and Malene Hertz have
been educated. Recently Contact Improvisation was included in the
curriculum of "School of National Ballet" in Canada.
The potential of the body.
But Contact Improvisation also tries to expand the traditional bodyunderstanding.
Thus under the weekend at Oberlin there were workshops with mixed
groups of dancers with and without physical disabilities, presented
by gruops like DanceAbility in Oregon, Touchdown Dance in England
and Paradox Dance Company, Denmark and California. Paxton has himself
during the last years concentrated his work with blind persons. In
this work the focus is being moved from seeing the body as a problem,
over a growing acquaintance with the individual body´s possibillities
to a development of these movements' potentiality in dance.
Many of the antiauthoritarian positions of the 1970´s have survived
in Contact Improvisation. In terms of the form's survival, it is for
example today an obvious strength, that it is not exclusively tied
to Steve Paxton's name. It is not ´Steve Paxton´s technique`
as we know Martha Graham´s, Merce Cunningham´s or Trisha
Brown´s technique. ... The danceform was developed under collective
responsibility around the world. The newsletter " Contact Quarterly"
and the forthcomming contactmeetings and jams function to connect
the practioning dancers and teachers.
To Steve Paxton the challenge still lies in the exploration of some
of the most natural in life, which is the body´s spontaneous
movements and improvisation as a fundamental condition of life. Or
put in his own words: How it feels to be the apple.
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